Tristram Hunt: Communities must stand united to defeat this warped ideology

FOR all the understandable attempts to play down last Wednesday's murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, it still stands as a terrifying event.

Of course we don't want to give his murderers and supporters any excess air time, but the fact remains that on the streets of the nation's capital a British soldier was killed by two British citizens for ideological purposes. And that deserves further investigation.

In an eloquent statement on the steps of Number 10 Downing Street, David Cameron spoke for a united Westminster when he said that the horrific scenes 'sickened' us all.

And as the Prime Minister rightly acknowledged, it was perhaps the unspeakably brave Cub Scout leader Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, who best summed up the mood of the nation.

Confronting Michael Adebolajo, she asked him what he wanted. When told he wished to start a war against Britons in London, she simply replied, "You're going to lose. It is only you versus many".

Because while the attack in Woolwich served as an untimely reminder that we must remain resolute in challenging the corrosive hatred of twisted Islamic ideology, it also demonstrated, emphatically, that this is a fight we are winning.

And that is thanks, in large part, to the excellence of our anti-terrorism police and security services, whose hard work we have also been grateful for in Stoke-on-Trent.

It seems clear that the attackers were known to the intelligence community. The difficult question the services will have to answer is why they were unable to chart these two thugs' move from loud-mouthed extremists to murderous jihadists.

Yet, as the IRA notoriously stated after failing in its plot to kill Margaret Thatcher with the 1984 bombing of the Conservative Party conference in Brighton, terrorists "only have to be lucky once". Security services on the other hand, have to be lucky all the time. But this isolated attack should not obscure the fact that it is nearly eight years and hundreds of foiled plots since terrorism claimed a life on the British mainland. That is more than luck.

Furthermore, the ugly crudity of this attack illustrates how far Al-Qaeda and its sympathisers have fallen in terms of capability. Indeed, it no longer seems credible to refer to Al-Qaeda as a coherent and organised terrorist group, in the manner of paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland. Rather, they now resemble a rabble of low-level madmen and murderers.

It is certainly telling that online jihadist magazines now implore would-be fanatics to commit the sort of rudimentary attack we witnessed in Woolwich rather than the meticulously planned carnage of yesteryear.

However, the main reason why this attack shows we are winning this war has been the unity that communities across the country have shown in their revulsion at the attack.

Because while social media and the 24-hour news cycle exposed this attack in a stark, Technicolor brutality, they also gave a platform for people to voice their abhorrence.

David Cameron was quite right to point out that this was not just an attack on Britain, but also a betrayal of the numerous Muslim communities who so enrich our country.

But that was only after British Muslims had taken to Twitter to condemn the killing with an unreserved voice.

In doing so they contributed to a unity that felt stronger even than that which followed the 7/7 bombs, and the kind of unity we saw in Stoke-on-Trent after the racist arson attack on Hanley mosque.

All extremists can be defeated with the same resolve. By resisting the knee-jerk judgement and tolerating difference. By respecting the rule of law and preserving our shared British values. By continuing to go about our daily lives.

And by ensuring that those who are in positions of authority within Muslim communities have the support they need to take on the poisonous, jihadist ideology, which has twisted these young men's minds and others before them.

For we cannot excuse these actions by talking about British foreign policy or the troubles of inner city life – to do so would be an insult to the millions of other young Muslim men and women, inevitably frustrated by political decisions, who engage in the democratic process rather than turn to terrorism.

Instead, we still need to keep on confronting this warped, unIslamic ideology head on.

Doing that will not bring back Drummer Lee Rigby nor is it likely to prove much comfort to his family. But it will mean that he has fallen in a war we are certain to win.

4 comments

Remember Enoch Powells prophesy which will inevitably come to pass unless the politicians listen to the people of this country. These hatemongers and their immams of the same ilk need to be shown the door and kicked out of this country. Ignore their so called human rights. They do not deserve to be protected as all they want to do is to destroy our society. The decent people of this country will only take so much before they rebel.

There is an evil ideology going on down in Watford and the sush sush meeting in Croydon this coming week Tristram, did you get your invite?
Its like the 1984 novel I guess, one week its Oceania and the next its Eurasia! One moment its Al Qaeda the database, oooops Robin Cook, Dr David Kelly & Benazhir Bhutto then all of a sudden freedom fighters!
One moment we point blank execute Jean Charles de Menezes and then we don'f follow protocol and shoot to kill Michael Adebolajo or Michael Adebowale!